The Last Days – Part 5 – The Tribulation Prohesied

We saw some of the names that this tribulation period is called through prophecy and that one of those names is “the Time of Jacob’s trouble”.

We realised again that this is Jacob’s, Israel’s troubles. Jacob is Israel. His name was changed to Israel in Genesis 32:22-31 and confirmed in Genesis 35:9.

He’s the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. This period of time is Jacob’s, Israel’s trouble and it will save Israel as a nation.

We asked how does trouble do that?

We’ll see that soon, but we should look at what kind of things we’re talking about.

We’re talking here about things that have never happened before and they’re certainly not the things that are happening as we prepare this episode.

Look at Revelation chapter 6 and we must realise that if we don’t understand what the prophets have said in the rest of the Bible, the Book of Revelation is a very confusing book. We don’t really have any idea what’s going on here unless we’re aware of what’s been said by the prophets in the rest of the Bible.

The Bible is an integrated message, and the book of Revelation is just that, a revelation.

It reveals what God was talking about through the prophets of old.

If we don’t get the Book of Revelation, it’s because we’re not aware of all the other prophecies.

Prophecy is what Revelation is revealing and if we don’t know prophecy Revelation makes no sense.

But if we know what prophecy’s said, Revelation ties it all together. It reveals.

So, it’ll help our understanding if we go back and study the prophecies before the Book of Revelation.

So, Revelation chapter 6 is a popular chapter among prophecy students because here’s where it talks about the four horsemen and the seals.

But to avoid falling into confusion and error, we need to build some foundation first.

Revelation 6 begins with the Lamb (Jesus) opening the seals to a scroll. The King James Bible translates this word “Biblion” as a book.

Let’s ask a question that many people never really ask.

Why are there seals on this scroll and what’s in it?

Well, this scroll or book with these seals has to do with Israel. It’s a promise that God made with Israel that has to do with the land. It’s a land deed.

Jesus, Who in Revelation is the only One worthy to open the scroll, is bringing to reality what God promised Israel, which was this land, this Dominion on the earth, and that’s what happens when this scroll gets unscrolled.

If we can understand this, we can easily see that the church can’t be a part of this period. It’s all Israel. But we’ll get to that soon.

In Revelation chapter 6 we’re trying to figure out what kind of things we’re talking about in this time of trouble. Just how bad do things need to be before we can say this is the greatest catastrophe of all time?

Revelation 6:1 says,

Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures (or beasts in the King James) saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.”

Like thunder. The day of the Lord will be identified by thunders and lightnings and things in the skies, in the heavens.

Revelation 6:2 says,

And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. 

We’ll talk about this a bit later on. This is the Antichrist. He’s going to come conquering the world.

Verse 3,

When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.”

Verse 4,

Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. 

These are things that John, the guy who’s writing the Book of Revelation, sees. These are representations of corresponding events happening on the earth.

The first thing is the white horse which will be the false Christ, the Antichrist. Verse 4 says there’ll be a Red Horse and power was given to him that sat on it to take peace from the earth, that people should kill one another and there was given him a great sword.

So, we’ve got the Antichrist, we’ve got lots of killing happening and then in verse 5,

When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 

Verse 6,

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” 

The point here is inflation, hyperinflation, and not only economic trouble, but there’ll be also a problem just getting food.

Verse 7 and 8,

When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.”

So, I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. 

The fourth part of the earth! 25%! Currently there’s 8 billion people on earth. Two billion dead?

A quarter of the earth dies by war, hunger, disease, and wild beasts and that’s just some of what’s on the horizon!

No living soul who understands this would ever want to be here at this time.

Right now, is the day of salvation, not then. That’s the day of judgment. Those who get by in that day are really going against the odds.

We need to take the Lord’s offer of salvation now and not put it off thinking that this dispensation of Grace will just keep going on indefinitely.

We haven’t got to the parts yet where it talks about the oceans being poisoned or about beasts coming out and stinging and torturing to death, or about the Serpent’s, the worldwide lightning, the great earthquakes, the Devils. All this is happening in Revelation. Everything you can imagine the apocalypse being that’s what’s in Revelation here.

Look at Mark 16 verse 16. Now we should by now understand the division between prophecy or what was made known to man and the mystery that was kept hidden from man until Paul. It gives us a have a huge advantage because we know that Paul describes what God’s doing today, with the Church, and it’s very different to what Peter and the Twelve Apostles were commissioned to do for the coming kingdom.

When Christ taught the Apostles about the coming kingdom, he gave them power to get there.

Let’s, just for a moment, pretend that this mystery period, the dispensation of grace, did not occur, it’s not included at all in God’s great timeline.

When Christ was resurrected from the dead, he taught his 12 apostles for 40 days and told them to preach the kingdom come. But as we look at the kingdom coming, what comes before it? Tribulation and the apostles knew that. They knew prophecy.

Jesus told them, the Apostles, to prepare for it. He gives them power to cope with these things.

In Mark 16:17 we read,

And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name they shall cast out demons.

These signs shall follow them that believe! These are the ones that believe and accept this message, this Gospel in the tribulation period.

Today we find a kid acting up and we think they have a demon but, in that day, there will be demons possessing people.

Revelation talks about the Devils and the warfare that’ll be going on at that time and these people who’re in this pre kingdom group in Israel will have the power to cast them out.

They’ll not have to fear the devil or demonic forces that’re trying to attack and destroy them. They’ll have the power and the authority to cast them out as Jesus did.

They shall speak with new tongues,

which, of course, is very helpful when they’re trying to communicate with each other from a wide variety of locations during the tribulation.

144,000 Jews are sealed with the sign of God on their forehead, and they’re told to go preach to the world in this tribulation. They’re able to speak in more than just Hebrew as many of these people being preached to at this time will speak many different tongues, or languages. That’s in Act’s 2 when Peter quoted Joel’s end time prophecy.

In verse 18,

they will take up serpents.

What’s going on here? Serpents?

The book of Revelation makes things clear as prophecies like Ezekiel 14 talking about wild beasts as part of the judgment and Revelation talks about these creatures that look like serpents and they’re part of the judgment.

Well, these signs will follow these people who believe the gospel and are baptized, and they’ll be able to take up serpents and not get hurt. They’ll be protected if they trust Christ. Of this group, it says,

and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them;

Well, when a third of the waters are poisoned and you can’t drink unless you die it’s very helpful to be able to drink deadly things. You see, God gives powers to these people going through this time of trouble that the world’s never seen before.

By the way, these verses never say these people will be protected from persecution like people cutting their heads off. It does say they’ll lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, which again is helpful.

A lot of these people, these believers, will die and they go to heaven and John sees them there.

Revelation 7:13 and 14,

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” 

And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So, he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

They died in and for their faith in Jesus Christ.

So, these powers are going to be helpful in saving Israel out of this tribulation. Huge numbers will die. It’s called a time of trouble friends.

This is not the church’s activity today it’s very different.

The question is when will these things be?

That’s the big question when it comes to prophecy, when!

People read about these things, and they know what the trampling of the wine vat is. They know bad things will happen in the tribulation before the kingdom comes, but when will it happen.

That’s exactly the question the Apostles asked Jesus in Matthew 24 verse 3 as he sat upon the Mount of Olives. We read,

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

The disciples came to him privately asking Him about the end of the world.

How do we know if we’re going to the kingdom and how are these things going to happen.

How do we know when the end is happening, I mean it’s pretty nice to know when you’re done with all this judgment so we can have a more positive view.

In verse 4 the first thing Jesus says is,

Take heed that no one deceives you.

There’s so much deception around the question of when Christ will return, and we’ve already covered some of those things like mixing prophecy with the mystery of the dispensation of grace.

Matthew 24:5 says,

For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

What was the first seal that was released that we just read about in Revelation 6?

There was a white horse, and many will believe the rider is Christ.

So, if you’re here in the tribulation and someone comes as the Christ, You’d know to say, “No, you’re not.”

How would you know those things? Because these many things have got to happen first. There’s prophecies that need to be fulfilled. We see in verse 6,

And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 

These things must come to pass but the end is not yet.

We talk about all the wars all the death and all the things that’re to happen, but Jesus says, “Don’t be troubled”. How can you not be troubled?

He says the end isn’t yet. That’s how you know the end is not yet.

So, the one thing that people say are signs of the end times, well that’s the one thing Jesus says that they’re not signs of.

Mattew 24:7 and 8,

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 

All these are the beginning of sorrows.

What’s Jesus listing here?

Pestilences, earthquakes, famines. Just what we’ve seen Revelation 6.

People hungry, people dying, people sick. And what powers were given to the apostles and the remnant believing group of Israel at that time?

Heal the sick and to get their daily bread. All these things match together and God’s going to work with His people during that time but He’s going to judge the world.

In Matthew 24 verses 10 to 15 Jesus lists some things that will happen.

False prophets and false Christ’s will rise up and people will betray one another the love of many will grow cold. Verse 13 says he who endures to the end shall be saved.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come.

We today in this dispensation of grace don’t preach the gospel of the kingdom, we preach the gospel of the grace of God.

Look what Jesus says in verse 15 and 16,

“Therefore when you see the ‘ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

There’s a specific event that happens here called the abomination of desolation that was spoken of by Daniel the prophet.

So, there’s got to be a Holy Place first, something that can be abominated. We are the temple today in this dispensation. Can we abominate ourselves, except for our bad behaviour of course.

Verse 15 talks about this abomination of desolation and Jesus gives us a reference. He says go back and read Daniel. Daniel speaks of something that needs to happen that will tell us when these end things are going to happen.

In Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24, another name’s given to this time period. Here it’s Daniels 70th week.

Daniel was in captivity. He was a faithful Israelite. Israel had received the judgment of God and had been taken out of their land which they’d been promised since Abraham, Issac and Jacob, and God gave a prophecy to Jeremiah before they were taken out.

He says, “I know the plans I have for you,” and it’s another popular verse people always take out of context. He was talking about Israel, and he says in 70 years you’ll return from captivity.

Well 70 years is over in Daniel 9 and Daniel prays to God and says, in effect, “God it’s been 70 years and I read this in Jeremiah 29:10,

‘For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.’ 

So, what are you going to do, Lord?”

When he prays this prayer, Daniel, being the faithful one that he is, God sends an angel to him.

The angel communicates to him what God’s going to do and in this communication is this prophecy in Daniel 9 verse 24.

It describes how long it will be until the Messiah comes and until the end of all things. Daniel prayed and God answered!

Daniel 9:24,

“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. 

A lot of things have to happen you see, but the good thing is there’s a time reference. Seventy weeks.

As we read down through here, we understand a couple things.

One is that the week’s here are not actual weeks of days they are weeks of years. The word “week” simply means seven. We use it most often to mean seven days, one week, but it could mean any length of time and here it’s weeks of years. So, there’s seventy weeks or seventy sevens of years.

So, we have the calculation of 490 years.

W’re still in Daniel 9 and Daniel 9:25 – 26, says,

“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. 

“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. 

This is one way the Jews could know that the time of the Messiah’s appearance was due.

The wise men from the east knew when the Messiah would come. The Jewish nation could read this also, in fact by and large they already knew this prophecy well.

They could read Isaiah and say yes that’s the right place, that’s the right time. Jesus in fact held them accountable to know the time.

So, we have seventy weeks here and it says in verse 25 that after 69 of those weeks the Messiah, the Prince will be cut off, killed.

This countdown of 70 weeks begins with what’s known as the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

There were actually three decrees and the story behind them is fascinating in itself but the one that Daniel’s prophecy refers to would be the authority given to Ezra by Artaxerxes in the 7th year of his reign (457 B.C) and spoken of in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

This decree was for Jerusalem and the temple to be rebuilt, that had both been levelled by the Babylonians, led by King Nebuchadnezzar.

During this devastating siege, the temple, which had been built by King Solomon, was torched, and the Judean leadership was exiled to Babylon.

The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times refers to the rebuilding of the streets and the walls within 49 years, seven weeks of years, from this date but there were many troubles in and around this rebuilding.

Daniel 9 verses 25 and 26 tells us that there are 69 weeks from the decree to the Messiah.

Within the first 7 of those weeks of years, 49 years, the city, and the temple would be rebuilt. Then 62 weeks of years later, 434 years, the

Messiah would be cut off, killed, but not for himself, and the people of the prince who is to come, the people of the nationality of the Antichrist, the Romans, will come and destroy the city and the temple again.

Another prophecy in Daniel talks about how the Antichrist will come out of a revived Roman Empire.

So, we have a prophecy 483 years beforehand of the Messiah’s death. The Messiah that will come and will die.

This angel is telling Daniel in Daniel 9:24,

“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. 

It would be seventy weeks of years until all things are finished.

So, looking back we see the cross of Christ after the 69th week but, what about the last week the 70th week?

Well, looking at verse 26, it says in the second half of the verse that the people of the prince shall come and destroy the city and the sanctuary and in 70 AD this is exactly what happened.

The Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem and killed over one million inhabitants and destroyed the temple.  Then, like a flood the Roman army would overspread the land, and carry all before it turning into devastation anything that stands against them.

This antichrist who arises from this revived Roman empire will confirm the covenant with many for one week, seven years, the 70^th and last week of Daniel’s prophecy.

Daniel 9:27,

Then he (the antichrist) shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week, He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” 

In the middle of this last week, 31/2 years in, he’ll cause the sacrifice and offerings to cease.

Here we have the temple, naturally rebuilt again, with sacrifices and offering being made as of old.

This prince, the antichrist, will make this sacrifice stop and destroy the sacrificial system.

We’ve got this Antichrist, this prince that shall come, who actually declares himself to be Christ, making a covenant confirmed with many people that he’ll break 31/2 years in, and then we’ve got an abomination of desolation happening.

The point here is not to go into all the details of Daniel 9 but to point out that the time of Jacob’s trouble aligns with Daniels 70th week, that prophecy in which all these things’ll be fulfilled. But before those things are fulfilled at the end of the seventy weeks you have this time of desolation this time of trouble, this Great Tribulation.

Now we know that something has happened between this 69th week and this 70th week. That’s this interlude to the prophetic timeline that was a mystery that was never revealed to man through prophecy. It was a mystery right up to the time it was revealed to Paul by Jesus Himself.

When Peter stood up at Pentecost, he said these are the last days and they absolutely were the last days according to Daniel’s prophecy. They were the last days according to what needed to happen. The next thing that was going to happen according to prophecy was this Great Tribulation, but instead Christ poured out and revealed a mystery to Paul. What He revealed interrupted prophecy, and that interruption has so far lasted 2000 years. We know we don’t live in the tribulation at the moment because we live in this time of the mystery, the dispensation of grace.

If we don’t live in this time, and there was no mystery revealed to Paul, and you’d need to rip out the most important books of the Bible that relate to us today to believe that, the tribulation would have been over 2,000 years ago. Some Christians even believe this is the case, that the 70th week happened 2,000 years ago.

Really? So, this world we’re in now has already gone through the tribulation and the 1000-year reign of Christ where sin was bound up and no unbelievers could exist?

And after the millennial reign of Christ the new Jerusalem must have come down from heaven and God must have wiped away the old heavens and earth and replaced them with new heavens and earth.

Come on! Look around! Is this the case? We couldn’t be further away from that picture!

The 70th week of Daniel concludes God’s work with Israel and included in it is the Great Tribulation.

What’s the point of all this judgment? Because of sin!

We already know that God made a promise to Israel to bring a kingdom on the earth.

He made a promise that he would bring that kingdom in righteousness, it wouldn’t come to sinners, so he’s going to judge the world. He’s going to come back and make the high places of the world low. He’s going to conquer the Gentile nations and set up his own Kingdom.

Daniel 2:44 says,

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 

He’s going to restore Israel and that was the question Peter asked Jesus before he ascended to heaven in Acts 1:6,

“Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus tells him in Acts 1 verse 7,

It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 

Jesus doesn’t tell him the Kingdom wasn’t coming. In fact, He said it would come, Peter just wouldn’t know when.

Jesus knew something was going to interrupt the progression of prophecy and it wasn’t for Peter to know what it was, not at that time anyway. He would know before his death.

Isaiah 4 is an interesting chapter that talks about the salvation of Israel through and out of tribulation and how the purpose of the tribulation is to make the high places low and to make those low places, Israel, make them high.

Israel will be purged from all their sins to make them clean once again and God will save them. He’ll judge the world’s wickedness to end the time of the Gentiles so that God’s power can now be in Israel as that one nation above all the nations. That’s time of tribulation, the restitution, the refreshing of all things that Peter presents in Acts 3:19.

This time of restitution and refreshing is when all things are made right putting Israel in the right place and the Gentiles in their right place.

That’s the time of tribulation. That’s why it’s there and when we realise that purpose and that function, there should be no question in our mind as to whether the church is there, because we’re not.

That’s not our ministry it’s not what God’s doing today through us.

We’re not part of a nation.

God’s building a body today and we have a Ministry of the gospel of the grace of God not the rise of the Kingdom. That’s another kind of judgment and there’s no mention of the Church, this mystery Body of Christ in any of these prophetic passages we’ve read.

Neither is there any mention of the church as in the Body of Christ in the prophetic passages in Revelation. The churches Jesus refers to in Revelation 2 and 3 is not the Body of Christ of today’s dispensation of grace.

We must be careful not to associate every word in the Bible with just one meaning only. There are a number of churches spoken of in the Bible and you can do a search on and see the differences.

We’re not going derail this end times study here to fully explain this but just one clear indication that these are not the Body of Christ churches is Jesus’s constant reference to their works and how He’s displeased by them.

This is not how God relates to the church, the body of Christ today.

He graciously bestowed salvation and justification freely upon us through Jesus’s death on the cross and his resurrection and all of those bad works and sinful activity have been crucified on the cross.

Works and our lack of them is not the basis of our salvation today in the age of grace.

Ephesians 2:8 and 9,

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

We, the Body of Christ, are just not there friends.

So, until next time as we learn about these sobering times of judgment on sinners, which is well deserved, I pray that you have received the salvation freely offered by God through the completed work of Christ.